From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgTue Aug 22 02:31:24 1995 Date: Sat, 19 Aug 1995 04:32:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing95-l@netcom.com, beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: Nafis Sadik on Beijing hopes [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 16.08.95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nafis Sadik on Beijing hopes Earth Times News Service Since the first World Conference on Women in Mexico, 20 years ago, there have been dramatic changes: but for too many women, the world remains the same. Most of the world's poorest people are female, and their number is growing. Most of the world's illiterates are female and their number is growing too. Their health still remain disproportionately at risk--three quarters of women's burden of ill-health is attributable to pregnancy--and they are still the silent victims of violence, within and outside the home. But there has been much progress. In particular there has been a breakthrough in the way the world community regards women and women's issues. Last year's International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) showed how far we have come. The Conference was a start of a new era in population and development. The Program of Action adopted at the Conference was a result of three years of discussion, involving women and men from all the world's countries, including thousands of women's organizations. The ICPD Program of Action explicitly places human beings at the center of all development activities, and encourages the international community to address global problems by meeting individual needs. The Program of Action calls for gender equity and equality, for making it possible for women to have and exercise choices, and for making reproductive health care available throughout the world. The Cairo Conference's explicit 20-year goals for expanded access to education, particularly for girls; reduced mortality rates; and increased access to quality reproductive health services, are the key to social and economic development, as well as to population growth rates that the world can accommodate. Population and sustainable development policies must be based on taking women's perspectives into account, and must ensure the full and equal participation of women in all aspects of development. The ICPD was all about choice. In particular, the power of choice over fertility lifts much of the burden of ill-health and allows women to participate fully in social, political and economic life. Making family planning available reduces the risks of pregnancy, and helps to prevent reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Experience has shown that to address people's reproductive and sexual health needs, family planning services should be integrated into a wider framework which addresses their overall health and well-being. Comprehensive reproductive health care can be built on the foundation of existing primary health care systems. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, was Secretary General of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.